Mac Pro

It's FastThe flagship Macintosh model and touted by Apple as the "Fastest Mac", the Mac Pro is the professional user's dream machine. The Mac Pro is the ideal choice for professional audio-video production, photography, design and print, 3D rendering, scientific / technical computing, and intensive computational computing.

Built from the ground up and as a successor to the PowerMac, the Mac Pro continues Apple's tradition of offering the speed and performance the professional desktop user demands but most importantly, requires. Note that the MacPro can be much more than the average non-professional would ever need. Therefore, unless you're working in one of the above mentioned fields, the Mac Pro may be too much to bite into. Your wallet will be better served by the iMac or the Mac mini.

Outside of an 8-core model addition in April 2007, the Mac Pro is now on it's third product cycle, or in other words, it's second revision. The following is a list of the Mac Pro release dates:

Original Release: August 7, 2006

Update - April 4, 2007, 8-core system added

Early 2008 - January 8, 2008 - Intel "Penryn" Xeon processors

Early 2009 - March 3, 2009 - Intel "Nehalem" Xeon processors

In the Box

Mac Pro

Power cord

Apple Keyboard with numeric keypad

Apple Mighty Mouse

Install/restore DVDs

Printed and electronic documentation

Design - Don't Let the Aluminum Case Fool YouAt first glance, the Mac Pro case with it's exposed ports on the front and back looks like a simple machine. Don't be fooled because behind that beautiful aluminum case sits one of the most powerful workstations money can buy. Built around the latest and most capable Intel "Nehalem" Xeon Processors, the 64-bit architecture and 8MB of fully shared L3 cache in conjunction with a new system architecture that leverages the Nehalem's integrated memory controller and support for Hyper-Threading makes these systems fly. On top of that, the workstation graphics, PCI Express 2.0, storage capacity, optional dual optical drives, ports, expansion slots, and expansion options, allow the Mac Pro to be configured to meet just about any professional demands by offering millions of possible configurations. The design offers owners the ability to easily expand the machine as usage requirements change or expand.

The Ultimate Desktop Mac - 8 cores or 4 coresThe Mac Pro can be configured with up to two Quad-Core Intel Xeon "Nehalem" processors running up to 2.93GHz giving the system groundbreaking 8-core power. These are the fastest quad-core Xeon processors available from Intel. The standard configuration ships with a 2.66GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon processor. Regardless of the configuration, the Mac Pro will deliver advanced performance.

Apple LED Cinema Displays are a Perfect MatchUnlike the iMac but similar to the Mac mini, the Mac Pro doesn't come with a display. That's solved by connecting an optional widescreen Apple LED Cinema Display. A perfect compliment to the Mac Pro, the displays feature the same anodized aluminum enclosure found on the Mac Pro. The two look great side-by-side and can be the envy of any computer user. The shipped graphics card in each Mac Pro supports dual displays. If that's not enough, you can configure your Mac Pro with up to four graphics cards thereby giving you support for up to eight displays.

What Can you do with a Mac Pro?Simply put, just about everything. The Mac Pro can do almost everything an iMac can do but more. Note that the Mac Pro doesn't have a built-in iSight camera as found on the iMac, MacBook Pro, and MacBook so you won't be able to video conference out-of-the box. That's solved by purchasing an external iSight camera. Mac users can use the full range of Apple software from the built-in applications that ship with Mac OS X to the most demanding titles such as Final Cut Pro, Shake, Aperture, and Logic Pro. The most demanding third-party software for professional use will run like a charm on a Mac Pro.

Conclusion & Buying AdviceGeared towards professionals, the Mac Pro is the ultimate desktop Mac workstation. Unless you need the features offered by the Mac Pro such as Quad-core or 8-core processing, PCI Express, multiple graphics card support, and a large amount of RAM, you're better off settling for an iMac. But hey, don't let this article discourage you. If you want the ultimate desktop offered by Apple, have the extra cash lying around, or wanna brag to your friends that you have the ultimate Mac, get the Mac Pro.

Updates

April 9, 2009 - Updated content for new Nehalem models released in March 2009, updated images

January 8, 2008 - Updated information about new Penryn based systems and content revision